DRAFTING LINES FOR SIGNS OF THE TIMES
BEFORE JUNETEENTH IN YAKIMA, 2026
Transforming despair into poster art.
Into signs. Getting our people safe
to the other side. Keep your form.
James Baldwin and Eddie Glaude, Jr.,
shiver at the cheapening. Celebration
what. Cheap grace. Together, these two
prepare me for Juneteenth,
Rise Up and Sing.
No king is coming for you, America
These are the Juneteenth James Baldwin Blues
He’s beginning again, and so am I.
The Anthology of Signs begins with your name.
Hold on, now. You gotta hold on.
Hold on if you can.
What does your sign say?
You know people driving by
can’t read a word
your sign says, she says.
What she says.
The Back women justices
on the Supreme Court
don’t suffocate because they’re not
breathing alone--
Lean into the fiction.
Freedom on a sucker stick
taped to the rear window of my Fit
Nobody knows Juneteenth.
Listen up kids.
Mom and Dad didn’t know it either.
Baldwin calls it the Aftertimes.
Don’t feel bad. It’s not easy
to wrap your mind around this one.
So here’s the first Juneteenth.
Galveston, Texas. 1866.
I know, I know. Hang on.
Yes, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation
January 1, 1863. Before the war was over.
The Civil War ended April 9, 1865.
On Grandma Cele’s birthday?
On Grandma Cele’s birthday.
Look. Nobody can understand this.
Supreme Court Jusice John Roberts,
Right now. Head of the Supreme Court Justice Himself
can’t understand it. He thinks history’s a straight line!
I’m not dumbing anybody down.
I am talking to a whole bunch of people at once.
Justice John Roberts is one.
Jim Bodeen
13 June-3 August 2026
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